New Ulster Bank fees mean it won’t be a Good Friday for some

New Ulster Bank fees mean it won’t be a Good Friday for some

THERE will be no Good Friday for Ulster Bank customers as a raft of new fees will take effect for thousands of them.

The move will see many current account users paying up to €100 a year for day-to-day banking.

First announced in February, the changes will see all medium and heavy users of their current accounts paying more for banking.

The new fee structure will mirror the ones being used by rivals AIB and Bank of Ireland, according to Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.

It comes soon after weeks after bailed-out bank Permanent TSB said it was changing the rules for those with its older current accounts, which would force many to pay fees.

Up to now Ulster Bank had charged its current account customers a monthly maintenance fee of €4, but it had no transactions charges for the likes of ATM withdrawals or for paying with a debit card.

From now on it is reducing the monthly maintenance fee to €2, but will charge customers transactions fees for using the current account for their day-to-day banking.

Ulster Bank is imposing a 20c charge for the likes of direct debit payments, point-of-sale transactions, and electronic payments into and out of the account using online, telephone and mobile banking.

ATM withdrawals will generate a fee of 35c, with 1c charged on contactless transactions and 80c for paper or staff-assisted transactions.

And there will be an 80c charge for cheque transactions, in addition to the Government stamp duty of 50c. Customers will be able to avoid the transaction charges if they keep a balance of €3,000 in their account.

But they will not be able to avoid the €2 a month maintenance fee, even if they have €3,000 in the account.

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It had been possible to avoid monthly maintenance fee by keeping the account in credit up to now, but that will no longer be the case.

Mr Cassidy said heavy users of the current accounts would end up paying an additional €50 a year, taking the cost to close to €100 over a year.

Customers over the age of 66 will be exempt from the maintenance fee and transactions charges, and youth, student and graduate accounts will not be affected by the changes.

Mr Cassidy said: “It definitely won’t be a Good Friday for Ulster Bank customers as its new fee structure will see the majority of account holders pay more for their banking each month.

“We still have among the highest mortgage rates in the Eurozone and now we have some of the highest day-to-day banking fees too, so this feels like a real kick in the teeth for consumers.”

Ulster Bank has defended the new fee structure, saying the changes would make things more transparent for customers and would bring the bank closer in line with the rest of the market, as other main banks already charged transaction fees.